


Lance's Birthday

by vanilla107



Category: Sym-Bionic Titan
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, She just wants him to be happy, and lance doesn't care about his, ilana loves birthdays, the smallest bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25961554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanilla107/pseuds/vanilla107
Summary: “Morning Lance! Happy birthday!” Ilana smiled as she ran up to him and held out a box wrapped in green paper with a blue bow on top.He stared at the present before giving her a blank look.“It’s not my birthday, Ilana.”“It’s definitely your birthday,” Ilana said, her grin widening.Lance rolled his eyes as he walked to the fridge where the obnoxiously colourful calendar hung, his eyes scanning the dates.“It’s not and I will prove it to you- oh. Nevermind. Happy birthday to me,” he said, disbelief as he spotted his name written in blue and the date covered with glitter and stars.
Relationships: Ilana/Lance (Sym-Bionic Titan)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	Lance's Birthday

The soldier walked down the stairs and yawned before entering the kitchen.

He smelt eggs, bacon and...pancakes?

Octus only made pancakes on special occasions. They defeated a Mutrati monster the day before but that wasn’t something to really celebrate. Ilana hadn’t brought news about acing a test and he hadn’t done anything spectacular over the last few weeks. 

“Morning Lance! Happy birthday!” Ilana smiled as she ran up to him and held out a box wrapped in green paper with a blue bow on top. 

He stared at the present before giving her a blank look.

“It’s not my birthday, Ilana.”

“It’s definitely your birthday,” Ilana said, her grin widening.

Lance rolled his eyes as he walked to the fridge where the obnoxiously colourful calendar hung, his eyes scanning the dates. 

“It’s not and I will prove it to you- oh. Nevermind. Happy birthday to me,” he said, disbelief as he spotted his name written in blue and the date covered with glitter and stars.

“Lance, did you forget your own birthday?” Ilana asked, siding up to him once more, a small giggle escaping her and he shrugged.

“I don’t celebrate it. My birthday doesn’t really mean much to me.”

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately.

“Lance! That’s no way to treat your birthday!” Ilana gasped as she gripped his shoulders, “That’s it, we are going to plan the most epic birthday party for you-”

“No, Ilana. You are not planning anything.”

The princess stopped, the excitement leaving her eyes and the soldier winced inwardly. He hated making her sad but he wanted nothing to do with his birthday and she needed to respect that.

“I’m going to school.”

“-But Lance school doesn’t start for another hour and you haven’t had breakfast,” Octus said and Lance picked up his bag.

“I’m not hungry. See you two at school,” he murmured before leaving the kitchen.

The front door opened and closed and Ilana took a seat at the table where Octus dished out three fluffy pancakes onto her plate and she lazily poured syrup on it. 

“I don’t understand him Octus! What kind of person would want to not celebrate their birthday? On Galaluna...birthdays were such an important thing for me,” she grumbled as she bit into a piece of pancake. 

“You know how Lance is. He’s more of a lone wolf. I know you want to make him happy but it’s best that we not plan this party.”

Ilana looked at the robot as he sat down next to her.

“I still want to do _something_ for him, Octus. It just feels wrong to not give him anything.”

“What about the present you got him? That’s something, isn’t it?”

“It just feels small now. I want to do something that will completely wow him and-”

“Ilana, calm down. I understand that you want to make him happy but...don’t plan anything for him. I think it would only do more harm than good. Remember…one of your duties as princess of Galaluna is to be considerate to other people.”

Ilana sagged in sadness as she swallowed the pancake and put another piece in her mouth.

“Okay.”

* * *

Lance could tell Ilana was feeling down about him not celebrating his birthday. The way her smile didn’t completely reach her eyes when she greeted people in the corridors to class and how she just didn’t have her normal upbeat personality on...it was unnerving to see.

“Hey Ilana, how about we go for ice-cream after school?” he asked offhandedly on their way to their 3rd period History class and she shook her head.

“It’s okay...I know you’re only doing that to make me feel better, Lance. I’ll respect your wishes not to celebrate. It’s your birthday, not mine.”

They entered the class, took their seats and the lesson began. 

After the longest 45 minutes of his life, the bell rang for lunch and Lance dragged Ilana to an empty classroom. He closed the door and looked at her.

“Ilana, I don’t like seeing you upset.”

“I’m not upset-”

“Yes you are! You aren’t happy and I can see it!”

The princess sighed as she leaned against one of the desks. 

“Lance...okay fine. I was upset this morning when you said you don’t celebrate because it was always a special day in my eyes. But I know that planning a big party is the exact opposite of what you’d want.” 

“That...that is true.”

“The last thing I want to do is to make you angry on your birthday.”

“But I don’t want you to be sad.”

“Oh, Lance. I’ll get over it! See?” she said with a forced smile.

“Ilana please never do that again,” Lance winced and she laughed.

“What? Not smiley enough?”

“No, it looked creepy and you know it,” he said with a chuckle and she rolled her eyes. 

“Was I sad when you said you didn’t want to celebrate? Yes I was but...that’s because birthdays were always a big deal for me on Galaluna. May I be projecting my birthday fantasies onto you? Probably, but that gives me no reason to disrespect you and your wishes. It’s your birthday and I want you to be happy. Simple as that.”

“That wasn’t really the answer I was expecting but...I appreciate your consideration Ilana,” he said, surprised that the princess wasn’t trying to plan anything.

“It’s what I should’ve done in the first place. C’mon. Let’s go to the cafeteria. It’s pizza day!”

* * *

To Lance’s disappointment, Ilana didn’t seem to look better over the last couple hours in school. He knew that it must’ve been hard for her but birthdays had been a touchy subject since his father’s death. He hadn’t told her or Octus and he didn’t want to relive the pain of it.

The last bell rang for the end of the day and he made his way out of his English class to meet up with Ilana at the lockers and then with Octus outside school. 

The soldier got to his locker and opened it, dropping off the books he didn’t need for the weekend before a high pitched laugh caught his attention. There were three cheerleaders huddled up a few meters away from him, giggling. At first he ignored them but his ears pricked up when he heard a familiar name.

“Wow, Ilana is _such_ a hopeless case!” a blonde said and they burst into a laughing fit.

“Can you believe she has absolutely no plans for tonight? Wow what a sad life she must have!” cackled a raven-haired girl. 

Lance felt every nerve in his body light on fire. If they only knew that she was risking her life to save them almost everyday they would think differently. 

“Yeah can you girls believe she’s never shopped at Forever 21 and doesn’t even get her nails done at La Boutique? Like look at yours, Danielle, the french tips look great!” a brunette said as she gestured to the raven girl’s nails. 

“It’s such a _shame_ that she’s related to Lance,” the blonde said with a sigh before her eyes widened at a thought, “Wait, Cassidy, you should totally invite him to your party tonight!”

“That’s a great idea Rhonda!” said Danielle.

“But what about his sister though? She’ll definitely tag along and we don’t want her there,” scoffed the brunette, who Lance figured was Cassidy.

“Well mention that you only have enough space for a certain amount of people. Wait, I think he’s over there at his locker!” Rhonda said, her voice going softer.

“Go for it! Imagine having him at your party!” squealed Danielle.

He could tell Cassidy was on her way over and was about to reject her invitation when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Lance, how was English?” Ilana asked as he turned to face her and she gave him a small smile.

“It was good. Let’s go home-”

“Lance! Hey!” the shrill voice cut through the air and he groaned internally.

“Hey?” he answered as he turned his head to the cheerleader.

“So, I’m having this really cool party this evening at my place and you’re invited!”

* * *

It was only a sentence but Ilana felt her heartbreak.

Lance was certainly popular enough to be invited to all the parties and she knew that just because she was his ‘sister’ didn’t mean she was automatically invited. She knew she wasn't as popular but she still had feelings and...Lance wouldn’t celebrate at some other person’s house...would he?

“Thanks but...I have plans,” Lance shrugged.

The princess looked at him with a confused expression. She didn’t remember him saying anything about plans that morning.

“Oh don’t be silly! What plans could you possibly have tonight?” Cassidy giggled, but Ilana could hear that there was venom in her voice.

“Celebrating my birthday,” he shrugged and Ilana’s jaw dropped and so did Cassidy’s in shock.

“W-What? Are you serious? It’s your _birthday?”_ Cassidy stammered and he nodded.

“Yeah, apparently there’s a surprise party back home but Newton can’t keep a secret. According to him, Ilana planned everything from decorations to cake, am I right?” he asked the princess who seemed frozen in place.

“Yeah...I worked really hard on it and Newton just couldn’t keep his mouth shut!” she said with faux anger.

“Well...you can totally celebrate at my party-” Cassidy began before Lance cut her off.

“Sorry Cassidy, but I’m going to say no. Clearly Ilana and Newton have plans with me this evening and she baked my favourite cake.”

He closed his locker door and gave Ilana one of his rare smiles.

“Let’s go.”

The two left the cheerleader, who was red from embarrassment and met up with Octus. Ilana filled Octus in on what had happened and Lance smiled from the driver's seat. He drove them home and before he could go up to his room, the blonde grabbed him by the wrist.

“Lance...thank you,” she murmured.

“For what?” 

“The cheerleaders...they’ve been picking on me the whole day about not having plans this evening. I absentmindedly said that I didn’t have any plans in first period, gym class and...and it became a joke to them. I wasn’t sad because of you at school…it was because of them. They made me feel so...worthless for not being invited to a dumb party and...” she trailed off, her eyes glazing over for a second before she blinked them away.

“Well you came to my rescue. You lied to Cassidy and her face was priceless when you said you had other plans!” she giggled and he sighed in relief.

“You know that I’m assigned to keep you safe from all danger and that includes vicious cheerleaders with hair extensions,” he chuckled and she smiled at him gratefully.

“Thanks Lance...seriously,” she said as she let go of his wrist and he grinned.

“Oh and I wasn’t lying about having plans.”

“Oh, we have plans?” Octus asked, walking outside as Newton.

“Lance? What do you mean?” Ilana asked, confusion written on her face.

“You two are my family and I...I want to spend my birthday with my family. The truth is I haven’t celebrated it since my dad passed.”

Ilana gasped and he paused to collect his thoughts together.

“I haven’t celebrated it since then and becoming a soldier was the one thing that consumed me. I didn’t want to think about it until you two mentioned it this morning. I didn’t want to celebrate but fighting alongside you two for the past couple months...it’s been different. A good different.”

Octus was the first to answer.

“Thank you for telling us Lance. It must’ve been difficult to open up about it.”

“I thought it would be but...it was okay, it needed to be said and I’m happy I said it.”

Ilana was still quiet and Octus filled in for her, “It’s a sunny day and since you’re not too big on parties, maybe a picnic? Is that okay Lance?”

“That sounds good. Ilana? You in?”

At the sound of his request, she looked up and nodded slowly, a smile on her lips and to his relief, the smile sparkled in her eyes too.

“Yeah, you know it! We gotta go buy snacks and a cake- Oh should I phone the bakery to pipe letters on your cake-?” she mumbled and Lance nodded before she gave him a hug.

He was frozen in place but wrapped his arms around her, hugging her back.

"Thank you Lance," she whispered.

The soldier knew Ilana felt guilty for badgering him about it that morning but what mattered was that he took a step closer to whatever family connection he had with them.

And he was going to hold onto that for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> I initially wrote this for a zine but now I can publish it! I adored Sym-bionic titan when it aired on Cartoon Network and I was devastated when it was cancelled. I decided to write this and since I shipped Ilana and Lance, I made them the focus of the fic! If you liked this, please leave a comment or a kudo!
> 
> I hope you enjoy and stay safe!  
> vanilla107  
> xoxo


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